Abstract

Carbon nanotube materials can now be produced in macroscopic quantities. However, the raw material has a disordered structure and unsorted size, which restrict investigations of both the properties and applications of the nanotubes. In this paper, an alternative approach to the synthesis of mono-sized and parallel-aligned single wall carbon nanotubes (SWCNs) is reported. The SWCNs are formed in 1 nm-sized channels of aluminophosphate zeolite crystallites by pyrolysis of tripropylamine molecules. As verified by tunnel electron microscopy and micro-Raman scattering, the SWNT is of zigzag structure. Electrical transport properties of the SWNT are measured in the temperature range of 0·3K∼300K. The temperature-dependent dc conductivity shows that the SWNT is an intrinsic semiconductor with a narrow band-gap of 52 meV. The well-aligned and mono-sized SWCNs allow us to make more controlled characterization as well as open a door to potential nano-technological application for the novel electronic nanotube system.